Types of Wild Fires

Many people know not know that a forest fire is not a forest fire unless it is a certain height, even if it is in a forest.  There are several different classifications of fires. They are as follows:

Brush Fires - are fires in vegetation less than 6 feet tall, such as grass, grain, brush, and young saplings.  If the fuels surrounding the fire permit, it will expand to a forest fire.

Forest Fires - are uncontrolled fires occurring in vegetation more than 6 feet in height.  A big forest fire may crown, which is where the fires travels up the trees and through the forest's canopy, before burning the forest floor.  This causes air pressure differences and heated updrafts which cause fire storms.

Fire Storms - are violent surges in a fire caused by oxygen being burned faster than convection can bring it to the fire.  The fire leaps to the next available source of oxygen. This sometimes creates tornado like spirals of fire that develop when the air within fire rises.  These fires are beyond any control, and the only means of protection from them is avoidance.